India, May 29 -- Families of the three Punjab residents held captive by traffickers in Iran have pinned their hopes on the Union government for their safe return after the Indian Embassy in Tehran said on Wednesday that it had taken up the matter with the Iranian authorities.

The three youth, Amritpal Singh, Jaspal Singh and Hushanpreet Singh, belonging to Hoshiarpur, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Sangrur districts, respectively, were promised a safe pathway to Australia via Iran by the travel agents but they were abducted soon after they landed in Tehran on May 1.

Contrary to what the Indian Embassy had claimed in its statement on X, the relatives of the missing youth have not yet received any update from it but they are hopeful that ...